This crab dinner has legs, but it’s running before it can walk The potential of Instagram to power and propel businesses from mere photographic ideas into actual money making businesses is well known. It’s one thing to read about it though and quite to another to sit in a restaurant that has its origins in …
This special events catering company outshines the competition in Tooting Long before the rise of Hoppers, one of the standard bearers for Sri Lankan food in London were the cheap and cheerful restaurants of Tooting such as Apollo Banana Leaf. So much so, that the very idea of Sri Lankan food in London’s suburbs is …
Humming along nicely? Not quite. An old work chum of mine was so ensconced in his suburbanite routine that he was only vaguely that Mayfair existed. When we had to walk through the area to get to a work-related Christmas party elsewhere, he was therefore taken aback at the gilded cushiness of the businesses lining …
The new restaurant taking over Spuntino’s place Disclosure: one dessert was offered for free. This was unsolicited and was accepted out of politeness. I don’t envy London’s restauranteurs. Extending hospitality, warmth and service is made all the harder by the compromises needed to open a restaurant in the capital’s cutthroat restaurant market. Soaring rents in …
BBQ Dreamz street food stall settles down in east London Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A street food stall serves up a cuisine barely known to most Londoners, earning plaudits and a devoted following in the process. Following a series of pop-ups, residencies and barn-storming media appearances, it finally finds a permanent …
No, not *that* Borough street food market, the other one frequented by actual Londoners rather than tourists At first glance Flat Iron Square appears to be nothing more than a cosy, small-ish street food market tucked underneath a series of railway arches just south of Borough Market. Although it has just 12 stalls, it’s also …
But the embers are already flickering out I’ve watched the growth and rise of Prairie Fire with interest and concern. Originally a street food stall with a stint at the original Mercato Metropolitano, this American barbecue restaurant has now found itself a permanent home in a former railway arch in White City across the road … Continue reading
The best dishes of the year that you haven’t tried yet As another year – and another decade – come to an end, it’s tempting to feel a sense of melancholy. The country as a whole rushes headlong into what will almost certainly be a jingoistically embarrassing debacle, while countless cherished restaurants have shut their … Continue reading
Words I wish I had written in the past year Food is an inextricable part of our lives, so it’s no surprise that what we eat is often intertwined with other parts of our society. From where we eat it and how it is produced, to who produces it, who really benefits from it and … Continue reading
London Bridge sweet and savoury pancakes I’ve always suspected that the food of our childhoods casts a long shadow, forming and influencing our tastes long after we’ve graduated into adult life. In its most primal form, the comfort foods we turn to for succor when adulting gets too hard are the ones most intimately tied … Continue reading
If vegetables are so delicious, then why do so many vegetarian and vegan restaurants insist on making them resemble meat instead? It’s never been easy eating out as a vegetarian in London. Prior to the noughties, your choices were largely divided between Indian restaurants of variable quality and hemp-ridden Mildred’s-type establishments which were almost universally … Continue reading
Tucked away in a quiet shopping arcade and full of understated sass Updated 26/11/2019 – tweaked the conclusions slightly Bayswater is a funny part of town. Dotted with hotels, souvenir tat shops and one too many overpriced cafes, it often feels like tourist trap London. But it’s also long been an area where you can … Continue reading
But this Borough restaurant isn’t the best of both worlds The flowering of new Chinese restaurants across London in recent years has given us all a joyous bounty to partake in. Biang biang noodles, skewered offal and spicy crayfish – to name but a few examples – are immensely preferable to the saggy prawn toasts, … Continue reading
